American Horror Story: Cult

TWO eagerly anticipated series are scheduled to start on DStv’s M-Net (channel 101) on Mondays February 12 and 19 – the first being a drama titled Here and Now, and the other the seventh season of the acclaimed American Horror Story, subtitled Cult.

Here and Now, scheduled to start at 9pm on February 12, is the new show from Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning writer Alan Ball, the 60-year-old who wrote the TV series Six Feet Under and True Blood, and scripted the Oscar-winning American Beauty.

His new 10-part show, which only premieres in the US on Sunday (February 11), is described as an introspective family ‘dramedy’ about a multiracial family – consisting of a couple, their three adopted children and one biological child.

It stars Holly Hunter as Audrey Bishop, a lawyer; Tim Robbins as Greg Bishop, Audrey’s husband and a philosophy professor; and Jerrika Hinton as Ashley Bishop-Black, adopted by the Bishops from Somalia, and now creator and owner of a retail fashion website.

A scene from Here and Now.

Then there’s Raymond Lee as Duc Bishop, adopted from Vietnam when he was five, now a successful life coach; Daniel Zovatto as Ramon Bishop, adopted from an orphanage in Colombia at 18 months, now a college senior studying video game design; and Sosie Bacon as Kristen Bishop, a junior in high school and the only biological child of her parents.

Scheduled for 11pm on Mondays from February 19, American Horror Story: Cult opens on election night 2016, when Donald Trump wins the Presidency of the United States.

Wikipedia reports that the series features a number of returning cast members from previous seasons – among them Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Cheyenne Jackson, John Carroll Lynch, Frances Conroy, Jamie Brewer, Chaz Bono, Adina Porter, Emma Robert and Mare Winningham.

Paulson plays Ally Mayfair-Richards, a restaurant owner who is devastated by Trump’s election victory and, in the months following the election, finds herself targeted and relentlessly terrorised by masked clowns.

Those close to her, including her psychiatrist, Dr Rudy Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson), struggle to ascertain whether the attacks she alleges are real or merely anxiety-fuelled hallucinations

Among new cast members in this series are Billie Lourd and Alison Pill. Also keep an eye out for a guest appearance by rocker Rick Springfield.

Also worth catching is a new comedy series, Young Sheldon, which premieres on channel 101 at 7.30pm on Wednesday, February 14.

Iain Armitage as the title character in Young Sheldon.

The series is a spinoff sequel to the hit TV series, The Big Bang Theory, and follows the character Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) from the age of nine, living with his family in East Texas, and starting high school, where his high intelligence isn’t met with much enthusiasm.

The series is executive produced by Jim Parsons, who plays the adult Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory. He also narrates Young Sheldon.